The deal is done, Downing Street in London and European Union (EU) officials in Brussels confirmed on Thursday as both sides managed to thrash out a post-Brexit free trade agreement (FTA) just days before the December 31 deadline.
After resolving a few remaining fair-competition issues, negotiators tussled over EU fishing rights in UK waters as they worked to secure a provisional deal for a post-Brexit relationship after nine months of talks.
Sources on both sides said the long and difficult negotiations were their a final stretch, with one EU official saying: “I expect to see some white smoke tonight.” The official asked not to be identified because the talks were still ongoing.
A spokesman for the European Commission, Eric Mamer, posted on Twitter after midnight that work on the agreement “will continue throughout the night,” adding that “hopefully,” it would be an “early start tomorrow morning.”
Negotiators are scrambling to finish their talks before Christmas in part to avoid the danger that the deal could not be adopted in time for Jan. 1. Without a deal in place, Britain and the European Union would default to trading under World Trade Organization rules, levying tariffs on each other’s goods.
That could cause severe disruptions in trade across the English Channel at a time when trade and travel between Britain and the continent has already been interrupted by fears over a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus, which emerged in Britain and led European countries to impose travel bans against the United Kingdom.
